Community
2 September, 2024
Housing central for Greens
WITH the housing crisis at the centre of his campaign, first-time Greens candidate for Cairns and passionate community man Josh Holt is running for the state elections aiming to create change through cheaper mortgages and rental reform.
The 39-year-old from Edge Hill Josh Holt never expected to see himself as a political figure, but as a concerned resident who has been affected by the housing crisis himself. He decided it was time for less words and more action.
So, he decided to run for Cairns in the upcoming October 26 state elections.
Mr Holt said he had seen inequality in housing while working in the arts industry, Defence Force, education and hospitality.
“I’ve had to move about once a year for the last four years because of the rental market crisis, so this year as part of the Greens’ cost of living and the housing crisis are going to be central.”
Some of the key proposals from Mr Holt and the Greens are creating a Queensland public bank to cut mortgage interest rates, guarantee lease renewals for good tenants and rent freezes.
“The vacancy rates have been under one per cent for nearly every month in the last three years. In the electorate of Cairns, 60 per cent of households are renters, and for those people rent has increased 30-40 per cent over the last few years and I think as a society we can do better,” he said.
“Currently the big four banks are making about $30 billion of profit every year. A state-owned bank doesn’t need to have that higher margin, so we can offer interest rates for about 1.5 per cent less and there’s no reason why we couldn’t do that. Queensland used to have public banks before.
“The rental freezes would be managed by the Rental Tenancies Authority, and it would be set by the property, so we can track them through the property, not through the ownership of it.
“Wages are rising nowhere near as quickly as rents are rising, so we need time for wages to catch up to these cost of living rises.”
Under the Greens’ plan agents and property investors would also be required to offer a lease renewal at the end of all fixed term leases.
